National Survey Shows That 61 Percent of Youths Believe That Antibiotics Can Protect Them From Catching a Virus: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Youths in the U.S. don't necessarily distinguish viruses from other causal agents of illness, and their beliefs regarding the efficacy of prevention options reflect this

ROCHESTER, N.Y., July 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Today's young people, tweens (ages 8 to 12) and teens (ages 13 to 18) are raised in a world where potentially deadly viruses frequently make news headlines. In addition to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) the virus that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), recent public attention has also focused on viruses such as those which cause bird flu (avian influenza), Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and Hepatitis C (HepC). Prevention messages often target youth and the success of this messaging may well be influenced by kids' and teens' assessment of their own risk and their understanding of what viruses are. Recently, Harris Interactive posed a series of questions to young people about viruses and the illnesses they cause. An astonishing 61 percent of youths agree that antibiotics can protect them from catching a virus. This result and others indicate that youths... (Click the link above to read the rest of this story)